The latest video appeal from Smile Train seems more the product of Comedy Central than a charity that provides surgeries to repair the cleft palates of children in the developing world.
There are no heart-wrenching images of infants with life-threatening physical deformities. Instead, the charity shows potential supporters something akin to a campy yuletide-season TV special.
The five videos in Smile Train’s “Grouchy Carols” campaign tackle seasonal frustrations, like frantic gift shopping, awkward office parties, and anxiety-ridden entertaining at home. The actress Shorey Walker, clad in a shimmering cocktail dress and standing before a winter-wonderland backdrop, sings parody versions of seasonal classics while musician Justin Rodriguez, in a white tuxedo, tickles the ivories. “You think hostessing’s so neat, but in the kitchen you just flail,” Ms. Walker croons to the tune of “Jingle Bells.” “Your friends bring nothing to eat, and the vegan wants more kale.”
Each song ends with an appeal to viewers: “Go from grouchy to merry this season. Give smiles to kids with clefts, and get your smile back too.”
Viewers are urged to send tailored messages featuring a “grouchy carol” to their most Grinch-like friend on social media. The sender is given the option of sharing the video or both donating and sharing.
In the final week of the campaign, a message with a New Year’s Eve theme — featuring Ms. Walker singing the back-to-work blues — will be released.
The charity hopes its new holly jolly social-media drive will help it raise enough for 250 cleft surgeries, a total of $62,500, by December 31. As of December 11, the group had raised about two-thirds of that goal, enough for 161 surgeries, or just over $40,000. (The drive started the day after Giving Tuesday, when Smile Train saw its donations spike 17 percent over the 2014 event.)
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It’s too early to tell exactly how well the humorous seasonal campaign will do: The charity, which raised about $91 million in private support in the fiscal year that ended in June, raises 30 percent of its money in December, says Susannah Schaefer, the charity’s chief executive. “We won’t really know until January,” she says.
The group’s social-media presence, however, has experienced a “spike in engagement” during the second week of December, she says. Smile Train’s Facebook page has more than 65,000 fans. One video posted to the page on December 4, focusing on the scourge of holiday food selfies, has had more than 12,000 views.
Though comedy would not seem a logical communications strategy for a group like Smile Train, the “Grouchy Carols” help lay the groundwork for education about the organization’s serious mission, Ms. Schaefer says.
In the developing world, where children may be treated at a later age than in America (if at all), a cleft palate can do much more than simply mar a child’s appearance, she says. It can hamper a child’s ability to speak, breathe, and eat. If an infant can’t nurse properly, the affliction “can even cause death. And here we are in the U.S., at the holiday time, and we can get caught up in getting stuck on a shopping line or in traffic, or we burned our holiday dinner, we have different family squabbles. Things that happen that we complain about. But there are other problems in the world that are more serious.”
The campaign, Ms. Schaefer says, was intended to use humor to underscore “the things we take for granted” and to get viewers engaged.
Smile Train intends to follow up with people who share its “Grouchy” videos and who give, via email and social media, to help teach more about the group’s mission.
The charity concocted the “Grouchy Carols” campaign last summer after brainstorming with SS+K, a New York marketing agency. One goal, says the charity’s leader, was to get more young people interested in Smile Train’s work. “The average age of our donors is 55-plus,” says Ms. Schaefer. “It used to be 60-plus, but it’s coming down gradually.”
Feedback for the charity’s dive into humorous messaging has been positive, especially from the young people the group has been seeking to engage for the first time. “Some of our older supporters still support us in their traditional ways,” she says. “This is all about engagement, bringing in a younger, newer audience, something a little avant-garde, untraditional, and innovative.”
Send an email to Heather Joslyn.
